Dreeben

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday grilled lawyers from the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about their motivations and authorization for bringing a fraud case against former President Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is accused of crimes related to his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, The Washington Post Reports. Manafort was seeking to have bank and tax fraud charges against him dismissed, with his lawyers arguing that the alleged crimes have nothing to do with the election or with President Trump. “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud… You really care about getting information Mr. Manafort can give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump and lead to his prosecution or impeachment,” Judge T.S. Ellis III said during a morning hearing. Ellis also requested an un-redacted version of an August 2017 memo from the Deputy Attorney General for the USDOJ Rod Rosenstein authorizing to investigate whether Manafort illegally coordinated with Russia in 2016.

Michael Dreeben, a prosecutor with the special counsel’s office, responded that the Manafort investigation has expanded significantly since it was taken over by Mueller and the specific parameters of the special counsel investigation have not been publicly revealed because to do so would jeopardize ongoing probes and sensitive national security information. Manafort’s attorneys have requested the judge address a motion alleging leaks to reporters that conversations were intercepted between their client and Russian officials and other issues in a hearing on May 25.